By Rev. Dr. Rick Jordan
On most Monday mornings, you’ll find me at Moore Magnet Elementary School, volunteering in the first grade. I volunteered in the fourth-grade last year. I guess the word got around that this placement was too advanced for me, so they “promoted” me to first grade. Everybody wins.
I was once an elementary school student myself, of course. I don’t remember first grade being a traumatic experience for me, but I’m sure there were a lot of new experiences for me, as for any five- or six-year-old. Adjusting to a new schedule, new rules, new leaders, and being in a room full of kids my age—school is a different world from home.
One of the new rules is the “no phone zone” policy. This includes classroom helpers like me. I can remember when I didn’t have a phone in my pocket, but I don’t know how I lived without it. Any lull in the morning and I reach for my pocket, then suddenly remember – no phone zone! Some children are more dependent on their phones than I am, but none of us dare cross that NPZ line until the final bell rings.
I guess they still ring bells. I only work mornings.
I have been pondering all the many, many worlds that I do not live in. From the elementary school, I drive past the children’s hospital. It’s a different world from the one I just left. A lot of children are in this building, too, but it’s a different world.
I drive past a grocery store, and I remember something that happened there about six years ago. I was walking with a new immigrant family from Africa through this store. They had never used a grocery cart. They never needed one of those in their refugee camp. They left one world and entered mine.
I drive past a Methodist church in my small community. Most of us who live in Lewisville, North Carolina are doing okay economically, so it always surprises me when the Methodists put up a banner that reads, “Food Distribution This Sunday 2-5.” That’s a needy world within my little world, but I seldom see it.
I know that John had it right when he wrote, “God so loved the world” in John 3:16, but I am learning to interpret it differently these days: “God so loved the worlds – all of them.”
These thoughts are from Rev. Dr. Rick Jordan, our partner based out of Lewisville, North Carolina. He is a 20+-year member of Ardmore Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, NC where he leads an adult Bible study, serves as a deacon and on the Vision Navigation Team. He has also ministered in various leadership roles from local churches to state and national levels. Contact him for more information on how our partner can help you.